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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hi all! Missed me?

Do I have a good excuse for missing Malaysian Monday and for the rather lengthy silence? Not really, no. Last weekend, we had a rare and rather luxurious time at home where we did absolutely nothing. The weather was beautiful, and we slept in, ate, swam, ate and slept some more. That feeling of floating through the days sort of continued after the weekend, and oops, here we are at Thursday with not a lot to show for it :) But hey, if you can’t give yourself a couple of days off every now and again, where’s the fun in that eh?

So, even though today would have been a Daring Bakers reveal, I plead extreme laziness, and offer you some macarons instead. Rosehip macarons with a white chocolate and blood orange filling. The filling is pink as you will notice, and done in honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Jamie and Deeba chose the colour as the theme for Macattack #24.

Pink and blue hearts because breast cancer affects not only the ladies but men as well.

The macarons were originally going to be completely rosehip flavoured, and I attempted to make rosehip “ganache” using brewed rosehip tea. Unfortunately, I must have used too much tea and the ganache wouldn’t firm up at all.

Not wanting to waste another lot of (expensive!) white chocolate, Plan B was put into action. This involved adding the juice of one blood orange (reduced over low heat to about half the volume) to cream and white chocolate (can’t remember the ratios, I think about 50ml cream to 100g chocolate). I also added a few drops of red food colouring to boost the colour. When the ganache was almost cold, I whipped it up using my beaters.

Voila, a fluffy, sweet and slightly tangy filling that looked gorgeous. The macaron shells however, weren’t quite as gorgeous because I wasn’t paying attention when I baked them and some got a little bit too cooked. (For the recipe, I used the ratios given by Tartelette and added some ground rosehip tea to the almond meal).

And you know what? The first lot of failed rosehip tea and melted white chocolate didn’t go to waste. They were turned into blondies studded with dried cranberries and pecans. Perfect for sharing with Mr. Kitchen Hand’s friends.

Thanks for sharing your time with me today, and if you do get a moment, here’s another “pink” website that you might like to visit.

PS - My friend Suresh is hosting the round-up for the next Muhibbah Malaysian Monday slot so please send your entries in to him: sureshchong(at)yahoo(dot)com.

13 comments:

Lucky you...do nothing at home it is an awesome time once in a while...happy for you. If you did not mention, I'd have not known that plan B was in place...the macs look fabulous. Love the colors! Oh! And the blondies look yummie :-)Hope you are having a great week Shaz :-)

Juliana - thank you, doing nothing once in a while is highly recommended!

Fiona - thank you :) I haven't got much experience/choice in white chocolate, the only decent stuff I can find is Callebaut (sold in pre-chopped chunks) at my local Harris Farm outlet. I use the dark chocolate from Callebaut as well.

Absolutely LOVE your creativity and the PINK Shaz. Sorry I've been missing of late. Trying to get back into the swing of blogging. Gorgeous macs, and fab way to use the leftover rosehip. I'm just like you when it comes to wastage! Welcome back to MacTweets my dear!

I xame looking for the povitica too, but these beautiful pink macarons are more than a pleasant surprise, especially for what they represent. I'm going to try and ge mine up this week. Love the ganache repurpose - it looks yummy! BTW, I'll be putting up my 7 links some time in November. :) Glad to have you back!